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Bill USA

(6,436 posts)
Thu Jun 30, 2016, 07:39 PM Jun 2016

Big US companies spearhead renewable energy drive

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e230d280-15e2-11e6-b197-a4af20d5575e.html#axzz4D6o3bn00


... five months ago the US carmaker did something very different, signing a 14-year agreement with a wind farm company, EDP Renewables North America, for enough electricity to make more than half the trucks it produces each year.

The deal makes GM one of a fast-growing number of big US companies buying green power to cut their emissions of carbon dioxide, and potentially make savings on their energy bills. In doing so, these groups are reshaping the way renewable energy is purchased, and helping green power generators build more projects than they otherwise might have done.

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Silicon Valley technology companies led by Google were the first in the US to plough into green energy in a significant way, but now the trend has spread to some of the country’s biggest manufacturers and retailers, including GM, Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Walmart.

In total, 24 large US companies bought 3.6 gigawatts of power in 2015 and the first quarter of this year — more than three times the amount purchased by seven groups in 2014, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a US non-profit organisation trying to accelerate these renewable energy agreements.
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Big US companies spearhead renewable energy drive (Original Post) Bill USA Jun 2016 OP
If Walmart just covered the roofs of all their stores with solar panels... rgbecker Jun 2016 #1
Actually they've been working on that... PoliticAverse Jun 2016 #2

rgbecker

(4,806 posts)
1. If Walmart just covered the roofs of all their stores with solar panels...
Thu Jun 30, 2016, 07:57 PM
Jun 2016

They would probably be a leading producer of green energy in the US.

Let's do the math.

OK! I get 790 million square feet of floor/roof area counting all 5229 stores.

At 10 watts a square foot, that's enough to power 19 million homes worth of electricity use.

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